Just Right

A Life in Pursuit of Liberty

Quick Overview

The inside story of the rise of the conservative movement—and an inspiring look at the future of conservatism

Lee Edwards is not just a leading historian of the conservative movement; he has been an active player in the movement longer than anyone else. He brings that history to life in this riveting memoir.

“[A] delightful memoir [that] offers . . . a perspective on our current moment that is informed by the past. . . . Mr. Edwards has not only chronicled the modern American conservative movement’s history. He has lived it.”—Wall Street Journal

“[A] valuable, career-capping book, bursting with personal stories about the rise of the conservative movement . . . [Edwards] has lived a great American life.”—National Review

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“Lee Edwards has always been in the forefront of the struggle to restore America, to bring it back to its ancient moorings. . . . Lee has fought hard with uncommon intelligence and resourcefulness. But he has fought fair and always without rancor. . . . Truly, a man for all seasons.”—President Ronald Reagan

Lee Edwards is not just a leading historian of the conservative movement; he has been an active player in the movement longer than anyone else.

As the Daily Caller noted in a recent profile, Edwards “has lived conservative history like none other.” And he brings that history to life in Just Right.

This memoir is full of colorful stories from a man who has been present at nearly every major event of the modern conservative movement and has done it all in a remarkable, multifaceted career.

Just Right reveals:

Edwards’s insider account of Barry Gold­water’s pivotal 1964 presidential campaign, for which he ran national publicity

How he wrote the first political biography of Ronald Reagan—and discovered early on that Reagan was a secret intellectual who read Hayek, Bastiat, and Chambers

Excerpts from his fifty-year-long correspondence with William F. Buckley Jr., revealing new aspects of WFB

Why the New York Times dubbed Edwards “The ‘Voice’ of the Silent Majority”

How he organized the largest public demonstration in support of our men in Vietnam

How he created the Victims of Communism Memorial in Washington, pushing against the federal bureaucracy for two decades to make it happen

Lee Edwards’s memoir appears at a critical time in the history of American conservatism. In an inspiring chapter aimed at the rising generation, Dr. Edwards shows how conservatives can remain a major political and philosophical force in America.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Lee Edwards, PhD, is a leading historian of the conservative movement. He has written more than twenty-five books, including Goldwater; William F. Buckley Jr.: The Maker of a Movement; The Conservative Revolution; and A Brief History of the Cold War, as well as hundreds of essays and articles. Dr. Edwards is the Distinguished Fellow in Conservative Thought at the Heritage Foundation and an adjunct professor of politics at the Catholic University of America. He chairs the foundation that dedicated the Victims of Communism Memorial in Washington, D.C., in 2007. He has received distinguished awards from Hungary, Taiwan, Lithuania, and Estonia, as well as from the Ashbrook Center, the Intercollegiate Studies Institute, the Fund for American Studies, Young America’s Foundation, Accuracy in Media, and Grove City College. Dr. Edwards was the founding director of the Institute of Political Journalism at Georgetown University and a fellow at the Institute of Politics at Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government.

Additional Information

Pages

400

Publisher

ISI Books

What They're Saying...

“At a time when longtime political comrades are turning against each other—pro-Trump, anti-Trump, anti-anti-Trump—it is instructive to be reminded of an earlier epoch of conservatism, one that appears to be more cohesive than the one today but that endured its own fissures and internal debates. Lee Edwards’s delightful memoir Just Right: A Life in Pursuit of Liberty offers just such a reminder—a perspective on our current moment that is informed by the past. . . . Mr. Edwards has not only chronicled the modern American conservative movement’s history. He has lived it.”—Wall Street Journal

“[A] valuable, career-capping book, bursting with personal stories about the rise of the conservative movement . . . [Edwards] has lived a great American life.”—National Review

“The reader of Just Rightcan’t help marveling at how closely the life of Lee Edwards has tracked the history of the conservative movement in which he’s participated as activist and scholar. . . . We should be grateful to Lee Edwards because he reminds us that conservatives, as they cope with the present, should never forget their past.”—The Weekly Standard

“Just Right encapsulates the tenacity of a movement that has refused to die, despite adversity—largely due to the work of men such as Edwards, who have remained faithful even in those inevitable times of hardship and defeat.”—The American Conservative

“Lee Edwards is a remarkable cultural treasure. . . . Just Right movingly and joyfully guides the reader through the ins and outs, the successes and failures, and the dos and don’ts of conservatism. As with the man himself, this autobiography screams hope.”—The Imaginative Conservative

“The results of [Edwards’s] lifelong fight for freedom are beautifully chronicled in Lee’s new memoir. For years, he’s been using his consummate writing skills to profile leading figures in the conservative movement. . . . At a time when the question of what it means to be conservative is in even greater flux, Lee’s optimistic and trenchant analysis is more important than ever.”—Ed Feulner, Washington Times

“The expectations [are] sky-high for any memoir chronicling Edwards’s life, which has been spent waging the war of ideas in the political arena. Fortunately, Edwards’s latest contribution to the bedrock of conservative history manages to surpass even those lofty expectations. . . . Edwards is one of a very few American conservatives whose lives and careers are inextricably intertwined with the movement’s history. . . . Must reading for any conservative.”—Newsmax

“I highly recommend Just Right . . . [which] does a remarkable job of bringing those early days of the conservative movement to life. And who better to tell that story than Lee Edwards, who was there and intimately involved in much of it. . . . [Just Right] should be placed in the pantheon of conservative ‘must read’ books.”—Richard Viguerie, Conservative HQ

“After writing more than two dozen books, many under his own name, many others ghosted for important figures, Edwards has at long last written his memoirs—Just Right: A Life in Pursuit of Liberty (ISI Books, 2017)—something his friends, myself included, have been eager to see for many years.”—Crisis

“[A] lively new memoir . . . Edwards has worked with distinction in a career that has now lasted nearly sixty years. His has been, he tells us, ‘a life in pursuit of liberty,’ a life that led to his being ‘present at nearly every major event of the modern conservative movement.’ In Just Right he tells his story with candor, perspicacity, and verve. . . . For six decades—longer than any American conservative activist now living—he has labored without stint for the cause, as his memoir so splendidly attests.”—George H. Nash, University Bookman

“[Edwards] has written or edited 25 books, including major biographies on Barry Goldwater, Ronald Reagan, William F. Buckley Jr., and Ed Meese, as well as numerous others about the movement. Now—finally!—he has written a book about himself. In a way, it’s his best yet. . . . This book is not about the [conservative] movement’s leaders as much as it is about its soul. . . . [Edwards is] one of the classiest men this movement has ever produced, and Just Right proves it.”—L. Brent Bozell III, syndicated columnist

“This man, ‘The Voice of the Silent Majority’ for a half century, has lived conservative history like none other.”—The Daily Caller

“It is no easy feat to write a memoir that is also a gripping political chronicle and a real contribution to the history of ideas. But it is a mark of the extraordinary life Lee Edwards has lived that this is just what he has done, and in a way that lets his passion, wisdom, and fundamental decency shine through on every page.” —Yuval Levin, editor of National Affairs

“Just Right is not only a fascinating and highly readable book; it is also an authentic account of, and commentary on, the modern conservative ­movement.” —Edwin Meese III, U.S. Attorney General under President Ronald Reagan

“No one has been in the conservative movement longer, or had a better seat, than my dear friend Dr. Lee Edwards. He has written the definitive inside account of the people, events, and ideas that built the movement and altered the history of America and the world.” —Richard Viguerie, chairman of ConservativeHQ

“Lee Edwards is one of the great witnesses to and scholars of the conservative movement and the battle against communism. His histories are vitally important. I am thrilled he has paused to tell us his story in this memoir.”—Paul Kengor, author of A Pope and a President and God and Ronald Reagan

“Lee Edwards has devoted more than six decades of service to the conservative movement. He helped build the movement from its low beginnings to its remarkable heights. And in a series of important books, he has chronicled the history of the movement. Just Right stands as another act of high service to this cause. This memoir provides the valuable lessons of a man in possession of the practical wisdom gained from a serious life of action and thought.”—Larry Arnn, president of Hillsdale College, author of Churchill’s Trial

“All of us walk in the shadow of Lee Edwards, the first and most important historian of the American conservative movement. Lee lived it, Lee led it, Lee wrote it, Lee inspired it.”—Craig Shirley, Reagan biographer